Chinese gambling tycoon does not have a Cagayan licence as claimed
News on 7 Dec 2016
News on 7 Dec 2016
Philippines Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre piled more agony on the embattled (and now departed from the Philippines) online gambling operator Jack Lam Tuesday, revealing that claims by Lam lawyers that he has a Cagayan permit to carry on online gambling business are false.
Aguirre last week accused Lam of attempting to bribe him and Pagcor chief Andrea Domingo following the mass arrests of 1,316 Chinese workers at Lam’s Fontana Park premises in the Clark Freeport on immigration charges.
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte involved himself in the row, ordering Lam’s arrest for bribery and “economic sabotage” but Lam had already left the country (see previous reports).
Lam does not have a Cagayan Economic Zone Authority permit, Aguirre said Tuesday, adding:
“Ceza has not authorized any of its operators to set up office or any of their operations in the Clark Freeport. It is very apparent that some foreigners are violating our laws. We will not tolerate that.”
In further reportage, local media revealed that 10 more of the 57 Chinese nationals who “escaped” from a Bureau of Immigration holding facility last week have returned voluntarily to government custody.
BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang, told local reporters that only 16 of the escapees are now still at large, and called on them to surrender themselves to the police.
And in a new development, an action group of commuters and road users tried to leverage the high profile Lam bribery scandal to support their own agenda of discrediting Philippines Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade, demanding that he be investigated for his activity in his former position as chief of the Clark Development Corp.
Ray Junia, a spokesman for the group claimed that Lam could not have prospered through his illegal gambling operations “if not for Tugade.”
Tugade has strongly denied the allegation, and it is unlikely to take hold, given Tugade’s political support and the fact that the CDC does not actually grant gambling permits.
